Police bought an accused gunman a Burger King meal just hours after a mass fatal shooting inside a historic black church in South Carolina.

Nine people lost their lives while attending bible study inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, last Wednesday.

Police arrested suspect Dylann Roof, 21, the following day and charged him with nine counts of murder in relation to the shooting.

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Officers described Roof as polite” and “quiet” while in police custody, according to a police chief who spoke with the Charlotte Observer.

Shelby Police Chief Jeff Ledford said when Roof complained he was hungry, police officers went to a nearby Burger King and bought the accused mass murderer a meal.

“He was very quiet, very calm. He didn’t talk,” Chief Ledford told the Charlotte Observer.

“He sat down here very quietly. He was not problematic.”

US President Barak Obama last week used the tragic occasion to address the need for tighter gun control.

Mr Obama said the US should again look at how killers get their hands’ on guns, after what he called “senseless murders”.

“Now is the time for mourning and for healing, but let’s be clear – at some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries,” he said.

“It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.”